BELGRADE - Ambassador Tacan Ildem NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy attended the 7th Belgrade NATO Week (Nov 12 – 14) where, alongside the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Ivica Dacic, he attended the opening panel.
Ambassador Ildem used this opportunity to yet once again reassure the Serbian audience that NATO fully respects Serbia's military neutrality and that Serbia is free to conduct its foreign policy according to its own priorities.
"We share Serbia's view of democracy and good neighbourly relations with other countries and international organisations and when NATO neighbours are secure and stable, we are secure and stable as well," said Ildem.
Serbia is a valued partner to NATO and it is up to Serbia to decide with whom and how it wishes to cooperate
During his visit, Ambassador Ildem underlined the importance of the adoption of the recent Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP), since this provides a very good guidance as to how take this partnership and cooperation forward for so as to best benefit and to serve to the expectations of both Serbia and NATO.
Ivica Dačić. First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia and Ambassador Tacan Ildem, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy
Ambassador Ildem said he is very gratified to see that public diplomacy is one focus area of IPAP. We always confront ourselves with the challenges of disinformation – propaganda. Not a single country is immune to being confronted with this..
Beside Ambassador Ildem, Mr. Robert Pszczel, Senior Officer for Russia and the Western Balkans NATO Public Diplomacy Department also attended the conference where he participated in a number of panels that dealt with the misinformation when it comes reporting on NATO related issues.
Mr. Robert Pszczel said that NATO is doing quite good work when dealing with disinformation, also having the lessons learned from allied and partner countries. We share best practices, not only among ourselves but also with the European Union. After all, these challenges affect many countries on the globe and not a single country is immune to the effects of disinformation and propaganda.